The Week That Was, june 28, 2015

     In what can only be described as a publicity stunt, Jim Justice has enlisted a quartet of famous old-timers -- Jack Nicklaus (age 75), Arnold Palmer (85), Gary Player (79), and Lee Trevino (76) -- to co-design a celebrity-studded golf course that he hopes will bring a U.S. Open championship to his Greenbrier resort. The 18-hole track will be called IV Greats of the Game, and for additional marketing pizzazz it’ll take shape on property that overlooks the Greenbrier’s Oakhurst Links, the first golf course to be built in the United States (age 131). “To get the super legends of golf that made the game what it is today and do something that has never been done and do it in West Virginia is just wonderful,” Justice told the Beckley Register-Herald. “It will be a legacy to them and a legacy to the game, because it’s right on top of the first golf course ever in America.” As always in our great nation, gimmickry knows few bounds. The track will be private, for members of Greenbrier Sporting Club (and presumably for guests of the resort), and it’ll be accompanied by houses, a private ski area, and other attractions. Justice hopes to break ground on it next month and to open it in the fall of next year.

     Pacific Links International has put Ernie Els on its payroll. The well-decorated PGA Tour pro and “signature” architect has become a “brand ambassador” -- a role defined more vulgarly as “paid spokesman” -- for fast-growing PLI, which has set out to export its version of “luxury, Western-style golf” to “the Asian market.” Specifically, PLI aims to transform an existing 27-hole complex in metropolitan Beijing, China into a Tiger Woods “signature” layout that will operate as Pacific Links National Golf Club. If all goes according to plan, the club will serve as the crown jewel in a 12-property chain of private clubs that PLI intends to establish in the Beijing and nearby Tianjin areas. Els will put his “signature” on at least one of the clubs, and he isn’t the only golf celebrity who’s agreed to shill for PLI. The company also reportedly writes checks to Greg Norman, Annika Sorenstam, Nick Price, and Mark O'Meara.

     The press release announcing Ernie Els’ ambassadorship to China also contained a juicy news nugget, as Els stated that he’s “proud” to represent Pacific Links International and “excited” to design “a new 18-hole course in Beijing.” Els’ comment may answer a question related to PLI’s 27 Club, the chain of 12 private golf venues that the company wants to create in the suburbs of Beijing and Tianjin over the next three to five years. Because Chinese government officials are loathe to authorize new golf construction nowadays, PLI plans to purchase existing golf properties and hire “signature” architects -- namely Els, Tiger Woods, Pete Dye, Greg Norman, and Fred Couples -- to transform them into “the most sought-after courses in the world.” Here’s my question: Has PLI given Els an existing course to redesign, as it did with Woods, or is Els creating a new course from scratch? After all, according to his website, Els has had a course “under development” in Beijing for a long, long time. Needless to say, no specific details have been revealed about the course. For what it’s worth, though, the press release announcing Els’ relationship with PLI describes the tracks he’s previously created as “attractive, classically inspired, and critically acclaimed.”

     Some information in the preceding post first appeared in the April 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

     Gifts of Gab, Part One: Alice Dye doesn’t often comment on the work of other architects, but she apparently couldn’t resist offering an opinion about Chambers Bay. “I just think a golf course where you have to walk 10 miles to play it is inexcusable,” Dye told the Palm Beach Post. “I don’t think that’s a golf course. That’s not what we’re about when we’re trying to encourage people to play golf.” Dye, who often co-designs courses with her legendary husband, also offered a prediction about Chambers Bay’s financial future. “I didn’t see any cart paths,” she said, “which means people will either have to pull a cart or carry their clubs, and I don’t think that’s going to fly with the people who can afford to play it.”

     Sorry for the delay, but this week I stumbled across another golf course that’s bitten the dust as a result of California’s persistent drought. It’s Hank’s Woodlake Ranch Golf Course, a track in the Fresno Valley that went belly up in January. “This was something you couldn’t foresee,” the course’s owner, Hank Bochini, told KSEE-TV. “I mean, the economy was bad enough, but when the well went dry, I couldn’t fix that.” Bochini hopes he can eventually re-open Woodlake Ranch, which had been in business since 1998. For now, he’s doing whatever he can to ensure that his other golf property, Hank’s Swank Par-3 Golf Course in Fresno, continues to operate. 
 
     Gifts of Gab, Part Two: A “gangsta” rapper who made his reputation by writing what Billboard describes as “brutally honest odes to urban anguish” is saying nice things about golf. “The game of golf slows the whole world down and gives you time to think,” says Scarface, one of



the Geto Boys. “Inner-city kids could learn a lot about patience. Golf teaches you class and character.” Sounds as if he’s angling for a gig with the First Tee, doesn’t it? But actually, the 45-year-old “hip-hop pioneer” has a larger goal. “When I’m 50,” Scarface says, “I want to play on the Senior PGA Tour.” Talk about a culture change.